Mody’s review published on Letterboxd:
87%
I have never seen the Broadway show, and have heard the songs in ing so i really had no connection or prior expectations going into this, and i think that helped my experience a little more. Yeah the movie is flawed.
But sespite its flaws, which are mainly in pacing, the movie is a bit overlong and doesn't justify it's 2 hrs and 40 min runtime, and some of the visuals, for most part i thought the movie was gorgeous, nowhere near as ugly or unsaturated as everyone was saying, but in some moments the lightning was a bit off.
However, the movie makes up for them with being delightful and a blast. Gorgeous production design, great musical sequences boosted by fantastic performances by the cast, especially Cynthia and Ariana. The production and set design is truly remarkable, genuinely loved how gorgeous the sets looked, even if some of the lightning was off.
What really sold on me on this movie was Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Both are excellent with Cynthia, truly dominating the movie. Both are delightful, and the movie works because of their fantastic chemistry. Also, their voices are just gorgeous. The movie won me over halfway through during the sequence where Elphapa and Glinda dance, the look on Cynthia's face made me emotional. They did a fantastic job showing her pain during that sequence.
Also, Jonathan Bailey in this is genuinely one of the most charismatic performances of the year. He is truly delightful in the role, and his ability to have chemistry with every single character was astonishing. His music sequence was so delightful to watch.
The entire cast was so funny, Bowen Yang was really fun to watch and his line delivery of "Enroll here often" made me laugh so hard. Sad to report that Michelle Yeog and Jeff Goldblum are either miscasr or severly under utilized genuinely cant decide which is it.
The Defying Gravity sequence was one of the best musical sequences of the movie matched only by Popular. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande truly put their entire souls into these musical sequences. Really loved the soundtrack. Truly a fantastic crowd pleaser, and i am so excited for Part 2.
